Washington County School District: Rural Students

Tucked in the southwest corner of Utah, Washington County covers - 2,400 square miles with a scattered population of -137,000. Pristine mountains and valleys compose this rural and rugged part of the state, often requiring students to spend hours commuting to their “local” schools.

In efforts to reduce the grueling commute for many K–8 students—and to provide for students with special needs and lifestyle factors—district officials in 2002 initiated the state’s first virtual education program. In addition, the virtual school was a way for the district to bring back, or attract, families who opted out of the public school system for a host of reasons. And as enrollment increased, the district benefited from recovered funding that otherwise would have been lost.

Partnering with K12, the district launched its program and immediately found receptive families who gravitated to the new virtual education model. Starting slowly, the first year’s class was limited to 20 students; it then increased to 50 students in 2003. The following year—due to the class’s success and ballooning student and parent interest—the district lifted the cap and opened up enrollment in Washington County.

Enrollment boomed—surging to 500 in 2004 and 860 in 2005. Administrators soon opened up the virtual program to other school districts. Again, enrollment increased, and currently stands at 1,000.

Washington Online Director Laura Belnap, an experienced educator who helped launch the Washington County program and who homeschooled her own children, remembers attending a presentation and being impressed.

“I listened to the presentation and went to a teacher’s meeting and I was ultimately hired to run the program,” Belnap recalls. “I believe that all children should have the opportunity to a quality education, and I am passionate about our online school.”

Belnap points out that a long commute is only one of several contributing factors to the growth and success of the online model in Washington County. “What I have found interesting is that we have students enrolled for a variety of reasons. There are students who are part of the U.S. Junior Olympic Ski Team, gymnasts, a family that is spending a year in China, and two actors—one who is part of a Broadway musical and another working in a soap opera in Los Angeles.”

Regardless of the myriad factors that persuade families to choose a virtual education, the common dominator is that students who attend these schools achieve good results. Washington Online, for example, has met national standards for Adequate Yearly Progress for the past three years.

What impresses Belnap about the results is that the school does not attract middle-of-the-road students.  “It seems the type of student we attract is looking for an advanced setting, or is struggling,” she said, making the point that just because a student is struggling doesn’t mean he or she is incapable of success.

Said Belnap: “I have found that many of our students who enrolled in the online school had stopped learning at some point for whatever reasons. Our job is to get them back on top. We see the impact of a K12 curriculum, with many students jumping a year and a half in one year.”